Love, Daddy

I cannot tell you how many cards I have with this simple message written on them. But, I expect it's somewhere around 28 - one for every Valentine's Day I've been alive.

My Daddy, my very first valentine, has sent my sister and I (and my mother, of course), red roses on each Valentine's Day for as long as I can remember. To my kindergarten class, my high school, my college dormitory and my first real job. From the school down the street to my office today, across the United States. Every single year.

Is that love, or what?

Because of this gesture and a whole lifetime of affection, I have never doubted the secure, unfailing love of my Dad. He established himself, in my sister's and my life, as the first lover of our hearts and smiles and lives. He made us feel beautiful and safe and treasured with his love. He was (and is!) a true earthly example of our Heavenly Father's love.

And though we sometimes took it for granted in typical teenage angst, moved far away and "abandoned" him for adventures farther from home (as he's fond of sadly reporting to sympathetic ears) and gave our hearts to others, his love for us came first and laid the bedrock for those that would follow.

Perhaps the sweetest gift of this love is the standard it set for the men who hold our hearts today. Our sweet husbands, who now love us for the women we've become, are not competitors but successors of this love he lay the foundation for.

He taught us how to be loved and to think of ourselves as lovely. He taught us what to expect and respect in a husband and a man. So, when we flew his coop and fell in love for ourselves, we knew exactly what to look for and exactly Who he should look like - our father, Heavenly and here.

We are doubly, triply blessed now in love - the recipients of his lavish love as Daddy, the witnesses of his marital love for Mama and now participants in a beautiful love with our Heavenly Father and husbands. All because of his example.

This, among other things, was his gift to us.

Love, Daddy.